


tender is the night

by trashy_cas



Series: in another life [1]
Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: High School AU, Incredibly Sappy, M/M, Prom, Way Too Many Space Metaphors, libraries that aren't traumatic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-23 19:51:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17086646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashy_cas/pseuds/trashy_cas
Summary: Ash and Eiji dance.





	tender is the night

**Author's Note:**

> i'm sorry this is a mess so am i

“Ash, you _do_ know that the dance is back there?” laughs Eiji, a little breathless. They’re nearly running now, as if something is chasing them away from the flashing lights of the gym and terrifying image of Yau-Si trying to do some sort of flailing dance that involves whipping his braid around his neck. Ash still hasn’t let go of his sweaty hand, which under any other circumstances might have been extremely embarrassing, but his heart is pounding too hard for him to really notice.

They round a corner of the English hallway just a bit too quickly, shoes far too loud on the linoleum, past the dark classrooms that look almost alien at night, and nearly trip into the main hall.

“Shhhh,” says Ash. In the faint light slanting through the windows above, Eiji can barely make out his pale blonde head, despite it being mere inches from his face. “Just follow me.”

 “Pretty hard not to,” Eiji retorts as they begin to run even faster, “what with your death grip on my— why are we _here_?”

Ash fumbles in the pocket of his dress pants with the hand that’s not currently clutching Eiji’s. He twirls a set of keys that glint in the faint light. “Library aid privileges, remember?” he winks, voice low and mischievous.

Eiji feels the bottom of his stomach drop to his feet for a second. Ash _winking_ while doing something morally questionable while also _wearing a suit_ should be illegal, he thinks. For the greater good of society.

“Yeah, right,” he murmurs, his voice a lot less condescending and a lot more windswept than he intended. “More like you bummed them off Mr. Lobo when he wasn’t looking.” He looks up at high windows of the abandoned library with a bit of apprehension. If this place is mysterious enough during the day, at night it’s downright spooky.

“Got it,” mutters Ash, giving Eiji no time to protest. He opens the door and tugs Eiji inside, the metal _clang_ making Eiji jump as they step inside. In the darkness, he presses close to Ash and tries very hard not to think about the fact that Ash’s cologne smells very nice. Like sandalwood and something distinctly _Ash_. It’s comforting.

“Scared?” asks Ash. Eiji can practically hear the smirk in his voice. He immediately takes a step back, glaring.

“You wish,” he hisses, but he doesn’t let go of Ash’s hand. “At least _I’m_ not the one who’s scared of pumpkins.”

“Hey now,” says the voice just a bit ahead. “That was uncalled for. Pumpkins are _evil._ ”

Eiji resists the urge to swat Ash’s head just in front of him. He instead opts for a very hard eye-roll that he knows Ash can feel through their connected hands. “Ok, whatever you say, genius. Mind telling me why you’ve kidnapped me?”

Suddenly, Ash lets go of his hand. Eiji feels the loss of it immediately, like some part of himself has been ripped from him. “ _Hey!”_

“Just stay here, ok? Don’t move.” He feels Ash move away, leaving him alone in the shadows of what appears to be the classics section.

“ _Ash!_ ” Eiji hisses. “I swear to God—”

“Just stay there, will ya?” says a disembodied voice a few feet to his left. “Gimme a second.”

Eiji sighs loudly. His eyes are beginning to adjust to the dim moonlight filtering through shelves, dimly lighting the familiar shapes of the library. He hears some kind of shuffling coming from the windows near the YA section and wonders faintly if this is it for him. _Oh, well. At least I’m gonna die with the most beautiful boy on the planet._

“Ash?” he whispers. “Are you there?”

“I’m here,” Ash says, somewhere near his left ear. Eiji nearly cries in relief, his heart beating way too fast in his own ears.

He turns to him, frowning. “You could at least tell me what’s going on before you leave me stranded in the dark, you know.”

“Did I scare you?” says Ash, giggling a little.

Eiji sighs fondly. He touches Ash’s hair, feather-soft between his fingertips. Ash stops laughing, his eyes widening.

“Never,” says Eiji softly. “Now, please tell me why we’re in the library when there is a dance I _specifically_ invited you to happening right now.”

Ash raises his hand slowly to the hand that Eiji has in his hair, holding it there ever-so-softly. He brings it to his lips, breath fanning warm across Eiji’s fingertips, then leads him out of the shadows of the bookshelves onto the main floor of the library.

_Ah_ thinks Eiji. _So that’s what he was doing._

The windows, the skylights—they have all been opened to the heavens. Moonlight filters through the ceiling panels. The air has a kind of quiet stillness that Eiji feels could shatter if he just reached out to touch the dust motes that float through the aisles.

He gazes in wonder, the tall chandeliers made into otherworldly guardians of the shelves, the desks the footmen that stand resolute over the marble floors. And finally—

“May I have this dance?” Eiji turns to see Ash, framed in starlight. Ash, his lips slightly parted. Ash, his hand outstretched.

All traces of mischief are gone, his face reflecting the stars in the sky that whirl above their heads.

Looking at him now, Eiji finds that it hurts to breathe.

Here, there are no responsibilities, no sadness, no endings.

Here, it is just the quiet, the light, and _them_. He chants it like a prayer inside his head. _Ash and Eiji, Eiji and Ash._

_Together, together, together._

So naturally, he smiles. Ash’s entire _being_ opens up, like some kind of flower that only blooms at nighttime, caressed open by the cycle of the cosmos and to Eiji, ten kinds of extraordinary. Eiji wants to breathe life into him, wants to hold him close.

“But of course,” he whispers, gently squeezing Ash’s slender fingers. _Piano hands_ , he thinks lovingly, and together, they begin to dance.

There is no need for music. They move together regardless, always in synch, never missing a beat, eyes never leaving the other. They waltz through dusty shelves and past the windows that open to spill the faraway light from millions of light years away onto the floor, onto them. It gets into the strands of their hair, the tips of their toes.

Bright flashes of green rise to meet Eiji no matter where he looks, imprinted into the very fabric that holds him together, so that even when he closes he eyes, he can feel their phantom touch, like fingertips tracing the constellations of his heart.

_Here is the vein where your blood beats in time with his_ the stars say. _Here marks the northern pole where your cheek meets the flutter of his lashes._

Eiji feels himself being dipped, Ash’s hand strong on the small of his back. His eyelids begin to close. _And here_ says that same voice, the one with hands that strip Eiji down to his very core, _here is where you are complete, in the soft, bright part of every human heart, where he exists, where he calls home._

Through the lids of his eyelashes, he sees the wisps of Ash’s golden hair flow down to him like a waterfall, a lifeline, a strand holding the two halves of him together. He can’t—he doesn’t _dare—_

_And here…_

Ash’s breath is warm as it fans across his mouth. He allows himself to close his eyes. His lips part.

_Here is where you finally,_ finally _know peace._

When Ash kisses him, they are both smiling.

(Unbeknownst to them, so are the stars).

**Author's Note:**

> hey all! some facts about this:  
> 1\. I wrote this earlier this year after I finished reading the bf manga but did not post it then because--  
> 2\. it was originally supposed to be one chapter in a longer fic, which was to be part of this series. regarding this series--  
> 3\. as of right now, I have very little time to work on this series because of school :(  
> 4\. BUT hopefully soon I will be able to return to writing it! I have the story sketched out and a few scenes roughly drafted in my notebook, but as I said, time is hard to find these days ahhh. 
> 
> But if you've read this far, thank you so much! the other work in this series is set after this little oneshot and is full of more fix-it-felix sappiness because, as we all know, banana fish punches you in the fucking face for no reason, steals your lunch money, etc. etc.
> 
> <3


End file.
